Food Allergy?

To help determine if you or your child has a food allergy, there are a few steps you must take.

• Keep a log – write down very detailed symptoms.  Be sure to note the food and how much of the food caused the problem.
• Call your doctor – Bring your log with you and tell your doctor all about it.  He will do an exam and further testing.
• Blood Test – If your doctor suspects a food allergy, the doctor will most likely send you for a blood test.  A blood test measure’s your immune system’s response to certain foods known as immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. However, these blood tests aren’t always accurate, and produce false positives.
• Skin Test – This is typically performed on the back for children, and on the inner arms for adults.  Your skin is pricked with a very tiny needle, and a tiny amount of the allergens are placed beneath your skin’s surface.  If you are allergic to something, an itchy raised bump will form.  The doctor will rate the size of the bump with the severity of the allergy.

 

• Restricted Diet – Depending on your results, you will be asked to remove certain foods from your diet.  If the doctor thinks that you may have an intolerance or sensitivity rather than an allergy, he may ask you to remove certain foods from your diet, and gradually add them back in to check for specific symptoms when reintroduced.  This will narrow down which foods specifically are causing the problem.  If you are truly allergic, the doctor will recommend the food be eliminated from your diet completely.
• Oral Tolerance Test – This test is done in your doctor’s office or a clinical environment, where doctor’s are prepared with emergency medication. A small amount of the allergen is given to the patient to ingest.  Typically they start with a very, very tiny amount of the allergen.  If that it tolerated, then increasing amounts are given at set time intervals, typically a every half hour or so.  If you don’t have a reaction during this test, you can typically begin including this food back into your diet again.

 

Frustrated….

Pizza box, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can’t help but to be frustrated right now.  I have several friends that have children that are similar in age to my kids.  And of course, my kids love getting together and being able to play.  Recently, we had some time to spend with a friend who I have not seen in a very long time and her three little ones.  We had a great time.  But…..

 

She knows that my kids are eating gluten free.  She knows that it is because of an issue they both medically have.  She knows how much I struggle trying to make my kids feel like they fit in.

When she invited us over, she mentioned that we should come for lunch.  I began to explain to her my hesitation…and went down the whole list.  The foods contents, the cross contamination issues, etc.  She still insisted.  I offered to bring our own food, that I knew would be okay.  I even offered to bring enough for everyone to share.  She still insisted everything would be fine.  But, if this lifestyle has taught me anything its to be prepared, so I brought food anyway.

And its really a good thing that I did!  We got there, and the kids played for awhile, which was awesome.  But then I noticed that she had thrown in a pizza.  I knew immediately that it was not going to be anything safe for my kids.  So, I asked her.  I wanted to know why she was making a pizza when she had offered to provide a safe lunch.  She then said, well it is a favorite of the kids, so I was going to give them that, and I have salad and fruits and veggies for your kids.  I was appalled.

I, luckily, brought a nice hearty lunch for the kids.  But, still not the point.  She knows that I do everything I can to NOT alienate my kids.  Sorry, but eating something that they can not have right in front of them is awful.  To top it all off, she even offered me the pizza.  I remained calm during the whole thing, but shortly after lunch my kids were getting tired and had asked to leave.  I was more than happy to oblige.

While I did take the time to explain my frustrations to her, I still can not help but to be upset to this day.  Please do not take medical issues, especially those revolving around kids, lightly.  It is hard enough for the kids to feel like they fit in, try not to make it any harder.

 

Winning the Food Allergy War?

Every day more and more children, and adults are diagnosed with allergies.  Food allergies, environmental allergies, seasonal allergies.  Oh, and don’t forget there is asthma and eczema included too.  My almost 8 year old, has all 3, plus asthma, and we went through a bought of eczema this past winter.  The child takes more medications than I do.  Inhalers, nasal sprays, and pills.  Packing her an overnight bag is like packing her a small pharmacy.  I am seeing this more and more with children, and even adults are having seasonal allergies who have never had them before.  It all makes me wonder WHY?

Scientists are doing a crazy amount of research to find out why, but no one really has a definitive answer.  There are so many theories out there… GMO’s, fast food, lack of breast feeding, eating the allergen during pregnancy, the rise of planned c-sections, & use of hand sanitizer – just to name a few.  The list goes on and on.  There are many experimental food allergy trials out there, with things like desensitization (ingesting small amounts of peanut flour).  Now they are saying to start children on foods with allergens as early as 4-6 months.  Before they could not have peanuts until age 2.  Do they really know what will actually help or are we all just guessing?  They claim that they are making great strides in the right direction.  Personally, it all sounds like a bunch of trial and error, along with lots of hoping that somewhere along the lines something will truly make a difference.

How do we truly know what will work to help win the food allergy war, until we know the cause of the war and what we are actually fighting against?  Until they find a cause and a cure, I am thankful for support groups, and other Allergy Warriors who are fighting this battle right along side my allergic child and I.

 

Allergies and Chiropractic Care

In addition to having issues with gluten, both my children ( and myself) have environmental and seasonal allergies.  And while there are literally thousands of things that fall into these categories, sometimes I feel like we may have wound up with reactions to a good percentage of them.  For awhile we had been on the seemingly never-ending cycle of allergy medicines that did not quite work well enough and overly tired, crabby kids due to the medication.  On top of that, I would typically limit our time outside, knowing that the longer we were out, the worse it would be for the kids later.  Now, my kids are the kind that would be perfectly happy living outside, if there was a way to do it, so cutting their time outside short never ended well for any of us.

That is when my husband and I began to look into other options for treatment.  This is what lead us to natural medicine, including chiropractic.  After a long period of research and continuous learning, we now choose to treat our children naturally and homeopathically whenever possible ( by this I mean that if there was a serious condition going on I would of course bring my children to their traditional pediatrician).  While starting down this new path, we can across the idea of chiropractic.  I had previously always thought it was something that either older people or people with back problems used.  I never realized the vast amount of conditions that chiropractic can help treat, and actually prevent.

We did our research and had meetings with multiple chiropractors before we found one that was the right fit for our family.  Before we even told him our concerns, he was able to look at the kids and pinpoint a lot of their conditions, which amazed me.  He then explained to us that our bodies have this insane healing ability that most of us are not aware of, and once everything is in alignment,  our body is able to take back over and work on healing.  We spoke of the laundry list of things that I was concerned about with the kids, and myself, and we got to work on a treatment plan.

Soon, we were all going for regular adjustments.  After the first adjustment, I noticed amazing results in the kids.  Temperaments were better, they slept better, they even ate better. As time went on, I began to see a drastic reduction in the way they responded to their typical allergens.  Reactions were far less severe and medication was rarely necessary.  Of course, our chiropractor advised us that the likelihood of a “cure” for their allergies was far-fetched, and not something we should be anticipating.  But, he also let us know that with continued adjustments, we can help keep their reactions at bay, since their bodies are better able to handle being exposed to the allergen.

We now continue to go for regular adjustments and check ups.  We use a homeopathic allergen blocker right under their noses on days we know the mold and pollen counts are high, which helps keep those days less severe.  We still keep Benadryl on hand, just in case we have a bad day or two, but I can honestly say I could not tell you the last time I needed to use it for seasonal and environmental reactions.

I am well aware that chiropractic care is not something that everyone is open to.  However, if you are, and if your family and children are, do your research and think about adding this to your treatment plan.  For us, it has made all the difference in the world.

Awareness in the Food Service Industry

It was another one of those nights tonight…

You know, the whole, hey let’s try and go out and grab something for dinner.  For those of you who can do this effortlessly, and without any kind of thought, I envy you…dearly. For us, it is a lovely game of first, finding somewhere safe, and then second, trying to find somewhere that my uber picky Bear will eat from.

After a long debate and thought process, we finally settled on somewhere.  As usual, once we were there and getting ready to order, I went through our typical “we can NOT have anything with gluten, so I need to know what your ingredients are” speech.    And this was met with the typical “Oh is this for an allergy” question.  I begrudgingly say yes, not wanting to get into how it is NOT an allergy (that is another post for another day).  But then, to my dismay, our server said they would have to go and ask someone else, and they would get back to us about what was safe.   It took quite awhile, and finally someone else came out to talk to us, with a large book that they told me contained all the items they had and what was in each item.  And I am NOT kidding when I say that this binder had to be 3 or 4 inches thick.  At this point, we explained that we did not feel safe enough to continue our experience, thanked the establishment, left a small tip for our server ( I used to waitress, so I feel that it is only right to leave a little something for taking up some time at a table) and wound up back home eating leftovers.

But here is my point, I just feel like if you work in an establishment where food is served, you should be knowledgeable enough to explain to patrons what is or is not in your products.  Not just for those with gluten issues or food allergies, but for anyone who asks.  People are becoming more and more aware of what they put in their bodies, and typically most like to know what they are eating.  I just find it amazing that in most cases the servers or counter staff typically have no clue what they serve.  Even worse, as in our case, the management did not even know what was in the products they were serving.  Um…what?  While I understand that this may be a paycheck for you, this could be a life threatening mistake for someone else.  I am not at all trying to downplay the need for us with food issues to do our homework…but it would be nice for places to start educating their staff on the make up of the their products.  Also, maybe a bit of education on the plethora of food issues that people can have.  It would be nice to walk into a restaurant and explain my situation and have it met with something more than a weird look.  A bit of extra effort on the part of restaurants could do wonders for their customer service, and open up their businesses to a whole new market of people who may have previously been unaware that eating there was a safe place.

The BEST Printable Allergy Action Plan

allergyactionform

For those of you who have or who have a child with an anaphylactic food allergies, or know someone who does, this is the most comprehensive form I have found out there.  It is from FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education).  I prefer this over the one my allergist gave my daughter, and others I have seen on the web.  I keep one of these with every Epipen my daughter has – my purse, her backpack, school nurse, and our take along bag.  It also has a spot to acknowledge if the allergic person has asthma or not (which would make their airway reaction much worse) AND what to do in case they do!  Most forms I have found do not cover this.

If you must carry an Epipen, then be sure to have one of these forms in there with it!

You can see the form by clicking here or going to http://www.foodallergy.org/document.doc?id=125

 

Disease Labeling

I was talking to a friend earlier today and we were discussing some nutrition information and swapping recipes.  This is something we like to do regularly.  Some background…She has diabetes, and is very careful about what she eats, when, and what combinations of foods she eats at a time.  So far she has been lucky enough to manage her condition by diet and exercise, although doctors are still keeping a close eye on her.  Today, she said something that really got me thinking.  In our conversation, I was teasing her about how meticulous she was with her measurements when it came to food ( all good-natured of course).  And her reply was, “Well I am a diabetic, what do you expect?”.  I found it interesting that she, and many other people who have diabetes, identify themselves AS the condition, rather than a PERSON with the condition.

I then emailed a friend who has Celiac and asked her how she identifies herself.  She also replied that she, and many of the members in her support group, identify themselves as “celiacs”.  There is just so much about this labeling that bothers me.  There are many other conditions that are life long that people deal with all the time, yet they do not identify themselves AS the condition, they just say they HAVE the condition.  So what makes conditions like Celiac and diabetes so different.  Why are people relating themselves AS the disease?

I would really love to see people step away from this.  Yes, you may have a condition, and yes it may be something that you have to deal with for the rest of your life.  But, your disease DOES NOT define YOU!  You are the only person that can do that.  I think that the more we encourage terminology change (ie… I am a person with Celiac disease, or I am a person with diabetes) the more people with these afflictions will be able to feel more “normal”.

After I did some thinking, I called my friend back this morning and asked her why she identified herself in such a way.  She seemed surprised that I brought it up and was genuinely thankful for my observation.  She did not even realize the way she was referring to herself and her condition.  She agreed that it was much more empowering for her to be a person with diabetes, than a diabetic.  So, I encourage all of you to listen to when friends are talking…and if they do identify themselves as a condition they have… ask them why.  Many may be like my friend and not even realize that they do it.

I would love to hear feedback on this issue.   Please weigh in on questions and comments.  Let me know how you identify yourselves and why.  Or let me know if you think I am completely off track.  I would love to hear everything!

A Single’s Site for people with Food Allergies!

I am so excited to have stumbled across this site.  After reading how, one day, when my daughter is old enough to date, we will have to grill her boyfriend about what he ate that day.  This is a great way for people with a food allergy to find someone in the same boat.  It says on their site, “Singles with Food Allergies allows people from across the country to date, communicate, and develop lasting relationships based around the food allergy lifestyle our members all share.”

You can see their website here.  Right now they are having a special too.  Check it out.

 

Study finds salt a trigger to autoimmune diseases

Interesting study between autoimmune diseases and salt done by Yale University.  One of the diseases they suggest is MS (Multiple Sclerosis), but there are so many other autoimmune diseases, including arthritis.  You can read the full article here

Welcome to my allergy blog

This page is for all the brave people who struggle daily with food allergies.  I hope this page will be a safe place where you can come to discuss, learn, and get support.

One man’s food is another man’s poison – Lucretius